Nokia Lumia 1520/1320 Preview

Nokia on Tuesday announced its first "phablet" smart phones, both of which feature enormous 6-inch screens. But the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 diverge wildly from there, with the former boasting much higher-end specs and the latter offering a budget-friendly alternative.

If you follow the smart phone market at all, you know that the hottest-selling device category is the phablet, so named for this device type's straddling of the phone and tablet worlds. Put simply, phablets are basically just smart phones with very large screens, typically in the 5- to 6-inch range. The most popular phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, has a 5.7-inch screen, for example.

With this week's announcements, Nokia outdoes the phablet competition in two ways. First, the firm is introducing two phablets, both of which feature huge 6-inch screens, the biggest yet in this category. And second, Nokia isn't just satisfying the high-end of the market with its offering, as do most of the competition: It is also offering a budget-priced phablet offering, the Lumia 1320, which I believe is a first.

Once you get past the size of the screen and the basic build quality, of course, the Lumia 1520 and 1320 are quite different. So let's dive in and see what's happening.

Lumia 1520

The Lumia 1520 is Nokia's new flagship device. It features a Full HD (1080p, or 1920 x 1080) IPS display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 microprocessor, 2 GB of RAM (frankly, I'm surprised that's not higher; it must be a limitation of Windows Phone 8 licensing), and 32 GB of storage with micro-SD expansion for an additional 64 GB of storage.

The 1520's camera is of course a PureView, as in the Lumia 1020, but with 20 megapixels (mpx) of resolution, not 41 as we see on the 1020. The result is just a tiny, even graceful, camera bump similar to that on the Lumia 925. But I'm very curious about this camera and if the quality as is good as I think it will be, it could be a very viable compromise between the otherworldly capabilities of the 1020 and your run of the mill (read: iPhone 5S, Samsung whatever) smart phone camera.

The Lumia 1520 is going to be very expensive: $750 without a contract and an estimated $299 on AT&T Wireless an d the other carriers that will offer this phone later this year. This makes sense: It's the new flagship.

Lumia 1320

So how does the Lumia 1320 stack up?

The 1320's 6-inch screen features an HD display, but it's only 720p (or 1280 x 720), the lowest-possible HD display, but it is at least IPS and should be very high quality. (I'd also remind folks that "low-res" Windows Phone screens look wonderful; this UI scales very gracefully, and I don't consider this a huge demerit at all.) The processor is a dual-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon S4, with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage and can be expanded with an additional 64 GB via micro-SD; it looks like Nokia has overcome its previous issues adding micro-SD to its unibody designs.

The big downer with this device, compared to the 1520, is the camera: Here we see a very lowly 5 mpx unit. This isn't just sub-PureView, its sub-standard, period. In a world in which 8 megapixels is the norm, Nokia should have at least provided this phone with the same camera in the Lumia 925. There's no excuse for this aside from arbitrarily finding a way to use lower cost components. Unfortunately, since camera optics are typically a Lumia's strong point, this is more painful than usual too.

Aside from the camera, the 1320 looks solid to me, and helping matters considerably is the price: It will cost just $340 in US dollars (no contract), though it's heading to price-conscious markets like China and India first. That's smart, and this phone will making a killing in such places, I bet. Just don't squint at those photos too much.

Want one?

I've been eagerly awaiting the first Windows Phone phablet, and I can't wait to pick up a Lumia 1520. If that camera holds up, I could see this being a Lumia 1020 replacement. But that camera is going to be the sticking point. More soon.

Discuss this Article 21

This thing weighs nearly half a pound! That's about the same as my HTC Thunderbolt with an extended battery. Believe me, it's quite heavy.

It's also quite a bit wider than the Note 3, which is already wide. Telling that we didn't see the product manager hold it in her hand, only Stephen.

Worst though is that I hear it's yet another AT&T exclusive? As a dedicated Verizon Wireless subscriber, I guess I should give up on windows phones already.

The great thing about this though is the 20mp camera. No weird "hump" on the back, but you still get 2x digital zoom. I think good digital zoom is vastly underappreciated. My wife just shot a regatta with her new 5s from the fruit company, and the zooming is pathetic.

Just hoping that the 5" version of this for VZW comes true... I'd be all over that.

I like the phone, but for some reason I keep thinking about the Nokia wedding advertisement that started off with one guy asking another to "please move his enormous phone" to which the other guy replied "you mean the enormously awesome Galaxy" and then a lady had Siri search for "one trick pony". Nokia was making fun of the same device they now have as their flagship.

I'll wait and see what the sales look like, but I think that something in the 5" - 5.25" range with a 1080p display would sell better.

The Nokia 1320, needs to be a little cheaper, to steal the market on cheap phablet market. I worry that Samsung could easily undercut that price. So I can understand the cheaper camera, albeit I didn't think 5mp vs 8mp as being significant cost drivers.

I like the features of the phone but at 6" on the screen size I suspect it will simply be too large for me to feasibly use everyday. For that reason I'll probably stick with whatever the Nokia 9XX or 10XX flagship is when it comes time to update.

I used to be against the upper range of the 4" (bigger than 4.5) and 5" screen sizes but now I think I'd prefer something in the 5" range. My wife's Galaxy S4 finally tipped my opinion to the bigger end but 6" for a phone seems ridiculous. I know my HTC 8X's 4.3" screen feels very cramped these days.

I'm with you Paul, I'm seriously leaning towards a 1520 as my primary phone. What intrigues me is the cross between phone and mini-tab. I do a lot of reading on my phone and a 6" display would improve the experience, plus the HD Pureview sounds impressive. Can't wait to see how the 20MP cam stacks up against the 1020.

Well Paul I guess I disagree with you on the 1320. Some of us are not to concerned with a camera phone so much since we use what's know as a camera. For $340 this phone is going to fly off the shelves. IMHO. Like you said WP will look good even on a 720p screen and with a good dual core processor and 2gigs of ram it should run great. I one real question is what about us poor little T-Mobile customers? :o)

They list a wireless charger accessory but wireless charging is never listed as a feature. Will the wireless charging plate introduced with the Lumia 920 also work with the Lumia 1520? What about the Wireless Car Charger CR-200?

The only feature I really want to see added soon is a stylus and handwriting recognition so I can take notes in a meeting.

Could you ask AT&T why a person who bought a Lumia 920 a year ago can't trade it in on a Lumia 1520 under their new Next program? Financially, they got about as much in my upgrade payments as they would have gotten in a year under the Next program and I am willing to trade in my Lumia 920 as required by the Next program.

Not necessarily anything; but lest WP provides no support for > 2GB, there is no point in installing those memory modules. And the OS needs to backward-support 512MB devices for at least the next year. So what would 4GB add to the user experience when MS will not be taking advantage of that RAM anyway, WP being a low-end proposition these days? A similar question: Why does iPhone 5S come with only 1GB of RAM? That phone would actually benefit from more RAM...

I think if they combined the 1520 and 2520 into a 8" tablet for $299 they would have a winner. (at scale) Both the 2520 and the 1520 look good but I don't think either hit the sweet spot on price and size.

I am a Verizon Wireless customer currently using HTC Trophy, which, I'm happy with but in desperate need of an upgrade. I am willing to pay full price for the Nokia Lumia 1520 at $749 just to keep my unlimited data plan. This post is to protest this ridiculous practice of "exclusivity" with a single US carrier for flagship phones like the Nokia Lumia 920, 1020, 1520 and even the non flagship, extremely affordable and totally useful $99 520/521 that's not available on Verizon Wireless. What gives? How can you expect a platform to grow exponentially if you focus on a single carrier or radio (GSM or CDMA), then change the design of the flagship phone that made it famous in the first place, transforming it to the ugly duckling that is the Lumia 822 & 928 and expect the same level of excitement or success? Lets stop this madness now! Microsoft/Nokia should work together with Qualcomm and Intel and whatever government agency needed to approve phones that are compatible on and can be taken to the carrier of the consumers choosing, just like our ability to take our phone numbers with us when we leave a carrier.

The 1320 looks like a nice upgrade for me, from a Lumia 521 I purchased a few weeks back on the HSN $80 promo. Lots more CPU, more RAM, more real estate. Sure, I'd like a 1520 or 1020, but not at ATT plan costs.

Paul you mentioned that 1320 has 2 gb ram and 32 gig internal, but in all the other websites I have seen , they mention 1gb ram with 8gig internal . Im interested in this phone, and if it has 8gig internal, then honestly it sucks. So can you reply to me in some way to confirm wheather it has 32gig or 8gig internal.......

Paul I'm getting a second phone soon and Windows Phone looks very interesting to me. You think it's still worth getting the Nokia 1020 or the new 1520? I know it's a tough Q to answer without more info but I've been struggling with question for a while now please help. My primary phone is iPhone 5, android is out of the question.
Thank you.

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